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Neofalantes as an active minority: Understanding language practices and motivations for
change amongst new speakers of Galician
O'Rourke, Bernadette; Ramallo, Fernando
Published in:
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
Publication date:
2015
Document Version
Final published version
Link to publication in Heriot-Watt University Research Gateway
Citation for published version (APA):
O'Rourke, B., & Ramallo, F. (2015). Neofalantes as an active minority: Understanding language practices and
motivations for change amongst new speakers of Galician. International Journal of the Sociology of Language,
2015(231), 147–165.
IJSL 2015; 231: 147 – 165
Open Access
Bernadette O’Rourke* and Fernando Ramallo
eofalantes a
N
s an active minority:
understanding language practices and
motivations for change amongst new
speakers of Galician
Abstract: In this article we use Moscovici’s (1976) notion of active minorities as a
framework to explain the linguistic practices and motivations behind linguistic
change amongst new speakers of Galician. Revitalization policies since the 1980s
brought about changes in the symbolic and economic value of Galician on the
linguistic market. However, this has not been significant enough to change the
rules of social mobility and Spanish has continued to be the language of prestige.
Despite this, neofalantes ‘new speakers of Galician’ have opted for linguistic
change and engage in the process of majority language displacement. We argue
that this displacement can at least in part be explained by a move away from
functionalist models of language contact and shift and towards an understanding
of these processes from a language conflict perspective. This allows us to explain
the practices of neofalantes as not simply deviations from the sociolinguistic
“status quo” but as reactions to it and as proponents of social change. To explore
the behavioural styles and practices of neofalantes as an active minority, we
analyse the discourses which emerge from discussion groups involving twelve
new speakers of Galician about their sociolinguistic practices.
Keywords: new speakers, active minority, Galician, minority languages
DOI 10.1515/ijsl-2014-0036
1 Introduction
As in other minority language contexts, the profile of new speakers of Galician
constitutes a sociolinguistically diverse group. This profile includes Spanish*Corresponding author: Bernadette O’Rourke: Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
E-mail: b.m.a.o’[email protected]
Fernando Ramallo: Universidade de Vigo, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]
© 2015 O’Rourke, Ramallo, published by de Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
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148 speaking migrants from other parts of Spain, immigrants from outside of Spain
who acquire Galician as an additional language, as well as returning migrants
from the Galician diaspora.1 Of most significance, however, in terms of their overall size and visibility are new speakers who were born and raised in Galicia. In
this article we will focus specifically on this category of speakers, a category
which has acquired the generic label neofalantes (literally neo-speakers) in some
academic and popular discourse. This label refers to individuals for whom Spanish was their language of primary socialization, but who at some stage in their
lives (usually early to late-adolescence) have adopted Galician language practices
and on occasions displaced Spanish all together (O’Rourke and Ramallo 2011).
This article explores the process of and motivations behind majority language
displacement (O’Rourke and Ramallo 2013) in which many Galician new speakers
are seen to engage. Majority language displacement, in difference to the more
widely studied phenomenon of minority language displacement does not tend to
affect the formal structure of the language being displaced. Nor does it usually
lead to “any reduction in paradigms, simplifications and loss of the language’s
own features, and, ultimately language shift and loss”, something which is frequently characteristic of minority language speakers who adopt majority language practices (Aikhenvald 2012: 77). In the case of majority language displacement, therefore, the process tends to be of a functional nature. Here we will argue
that this displacement can at least in part be explained by looking at language
contact from a language conflict perspective. To do so, we draw on Moscovici’s
(1976) notion of active minorities as a framework to explain the linguistic practices and motivations for linguistic change amongst new speakers of Galician.
2 Neofalantesand majority language displacement
Neofalantes constitute a relatively new sociolinguistic profile in Galicia. They
share a set of common linguistic trajectories, but with different social and ideological backgrounds. They constitute a profile of speaker which began to emerge
1 The number of new speakers with such profiles is however relatively small, particularly compared with corresponding numbers in Catalonia and the Basque Country where migratory trends
have been more significant. Galicia’s economically and geographically isolated position in the
north-western corner of Spain did not attract the waves of Spanish-speaking workers to other
regions. Similarly, in a more contemporary context, Galicia has not experienced the same levels
of immigration from outside of Spain experienced by some of Spain’s outer autonomous communities. Conversely, Galicia has a long history of out migration and emigration to Europe and
South America.
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149
Neofalantesas an active minority in the 1960s. This profile was consolidated in the context of socio-political
changes in Galicia since the 1980s and to a certain extent more favourable language policies for some of the other languages of Spain (including Galician,
Basque and Catalan) in the context of Spain’s transition to democracy. Neofalantes are essentially the product of the bilingual education policies in place in Galicia since the 1980s and which have brought recent generations of young Galicians
into contact with the Galician language in a formal setting. For many of this
younger generation, particularly those residing in Galicia’s main urban centres,
Spanish is the language of the home. According to most recent sociolinguistic
data on Galician, less than 30 percent within the under twenty-five age cohort
had acquired Galician as their first language. This compares with sixty-five percent in the over fifties age category. Figures are even more acute amongst Galicia’s
urban youth, with only eleven percent reporting Galician as their first language
(Instituto Galego de Estatística 2008). It thus follows that for a younger generation of Galicians, the education system has come to be their primary agent for the
production of the language.
As well as producing Galician speakers, the inclusion of the language in the
education system has instilled a greater sense of sociolinguistic awareness
amongst this younger generation. This has in turn eliminated many of the prejudicial beliefs historically associated with the language, linking it to backwardness and poverty. Over the past three decades, attitudes to Galician have changed
significantly, particularly amongst a younger generation (González González
2011; Bouzada-Fernández 2003; O’Rourke 2011; Observatorio da Cultura Galega
2011). Reading and writing skills in the language are also highest amongst
younger age groups, while nonetheless remaining below the corresponding standards acquired in Spanish (Silva Valdibia 2010).
While the inclusion of Galician in the education system plays an important
role in raising the status of the language, it does not however guarantee increased
levels of language use at a societal level. As Hornberger (2008: 1) and many others
have shown, “schools alone are not enough to do the job”. While almost ninety
percent of those under twenty-five say they can speak Galician “well”, only fortyfive percent report active use of the language. This figure drops to twenty percent
amongst young people living in urban contexts (Instituto Galego de Estatística
2008). Despite increased institutional support for Galician, intergenerational transmission continues to decline. Over the last twenty years, the percentage of mothertongue speakers of Galician fell from sixty to forty-seven percent (Ramallo 2012).
However, these figures conceal some of the more positive changes which have
taken place at other levels (O’Rourke and Ramallo 2011). Over the past three decades, there has been a notable increase in bilingual practices. Fifty-seven percent
of Galicians under the age of twenty-five report bilingual behaviour in both Gali-
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150 cian and Spanish, with thirty-three percent reporting “more Spanish than Galician” and twenty-two percent “more Galician than Spanish” (Instituto Galego de
Estatística 2008).2 The use of Galician amongst first language speakers of Spanish
is also shown to change over the life-cycle of the individual. Seven percent report
increased bilingual behaviour with a leaning toward predominant use of Galician
and a further two percent report abandoning Spanish altogether in favour of
monolingual practices in Galician (Instituto Galego de Estatística 2008). In most
cases, this change is down to “personal” reasons as opposed to “work-rated” motivations. Comparatively, first language speakers of Galician who report shifts to
Spanish seem to be more driven by its perceived value in instrumental as opposed
to integrative terms (Monteagudo 2012). This would seem to imply a more ethnocultural or identity-based frame for new speakers of Galician, as opposed to any
inherent value awarded the language as a form of economic capital.
While language policy in Galicia has to a certain degree increased the symbolic and economic value of Galician on the linguistic market (Bourdieu 1991),
this has not been sufficient to bring about a reversal of language shift. In the last
30 years, Galician became a requisite for access to public sector employment. As
a result certain niche markets emerged within the new Galician public administration including jobs in the public media, education and local and regional administrative bodies, giving employment to those who could show formal skills in
the language. However, while the status of the language has been enhanced since
the 1980s, Spanish remains the language of prestige and social mobility. We can
thus repeat the question that Ryan (1979) asked several decades ago about the
persistence of low-prestige languages. What prompts speakers of a dominant language such as Spanish to adopt a non-prestige language such as Galician and to
engage in the process of majority language displacement (O’Rourke and Ramallo
2013)?
Here, we wish to argue that this displacement can at least in part be explained
by looking at language groups which come into contact from a language conflict
perspective. Existing models of language groups in contact have, as Williams
(1992: 121) highlights, tended to involve typologies and approaches that limit
what can be said about the inherent conflict between such groups.3 This, he
2 In language surveys carried out by Instituto Galego de Estatística, language use is measured
on a four point scale ranging from “Galician only” to “Spanish only”. Between these categories
are two other categories which include “more Galician than Spanish” and “more Spanish than
Galician”. These latter two categories capture varying degrees of reported bilingual linguistic
practices amongst Galicians.
3 Language conflict models have been studied at great length in Catalan and Occitan Socio­
linguistics. See, for example, Aracil (1965), Ninyoles (1975) and Gardy and Lafont (1981).
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Neofalantesas an active minority argues, marginalizes minority languages and at the same time makes it virtually
impossible to express anger and frustration by those faced with the process of
language shift, sentiments which, as we will see later, come across in new speaker
discourses. Williams suggests that the main reason for this is that there has been
a tendency to view the process of language shift from a functionalist perspective
and therefore as consensual. This in turn plays down the potential for conflict
and ignores power relations. Therefore, within existing models we have been
unable to account for apparent deviations from the sociolinguistic “status quo”
such as is revealed in the behaviour of new speakers.
In this context, Moscovici’s (1976) notion of active minorities through which
he put forward a dynamic perspective in the analysis of social reality and the
understanding of social change (and subsequent developments of the notion,
see for example, Moscovici et al. [1985], Moscovici et al. [1994] and Martin and
Hewstone [2010]) provides a particularly useful framework within which to understand the linguistic practices and motivations for linguistic change amongst
new speakers.
3 Active minorities: a theoretical view
Moscovici’s theory of active minorities looks at the conflict which takes place in
society, allowing a reflection on the motivations for action, decision-making and
change such as those evidenced in new speaker practices. Up until the 1970s, the
study of social influence was devoted mainly to the experimental analysis of conformity within a group. Sherif (1936) and Asch (1952) related social influence to
the power of majorities and to the desire of the individual to share the same perspective with the group. For them social influence was mainly understood through
a functionalist point of view, which insisted that conflict was avoided, thus lending itself to a harmonious society. From a functionalist perspective, individuals
were seen to conform to existing rules and norms, and more specifically to the
rules of the majority.
Active minorities can be defined as individuals or groups who through their
behaviour attempt to influence both the attitudes and practices of the majority
and in doing so, bring about social change. Some examples of active minorities
include environmentalists, squatters, feminist and nationalist movements and,
in our case here, neofalantismo (literally neo-speakerism or a new speakerist
movement). In his discussion of active minorities, Moscovici (1976) stressed in­
novation as the most important idea in his theory of social change. According to
him, social change arises from “the power of minorities” and such change takes
place on the one hand because of conflict and on the other as a result of certain
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152 behavioural styles which are displayed by the active minority including consistency, rigidity, equality, investment and autonomy. Consistency, Moscovici proposes, is manifested through the repetition of the same message over time while
the behavioural style of rigidity forces the majority to understand the influence of
the minority. Equality emphasises the desire of the minority to establish reciprocal relations with the majority. There is frequently also an investment of time,
money and energy in a particular cause, underscoring the minority’s capacity of
sacrifice. Finally, an active minority often displays autonomy or independence in
judgement and thus a will to act according to its own principles. Subsequently,
extremism is often seen to become an element of autonomy because of its tendency to emphasise a consistent and strict attitude. Of these behavioural styles,
however, consistency is probably the most important in terms of social influence,
although in and of itself is not sufficient as a means of explaining social change
(Mugny and Papastamou 1982). Through these behavioural styles, the minority
thus creates conflict between itself and the majority by insisting on its individual
point of view and in doing so generates a polarisation within society. This can in
turn prompt action on the part of the majority either to conform to the ideas of the
minority or conversely, to react against them by adopting a series of strategies to
curb the success of the minority. These strategies can involve the downgrading
and censuring of the active minority, something which is often manifested by negating the validity of their position and by emphasising their apparent absurdity
and incoherence. The majority can also engage in the process of psychologization
whereby arguments are used to discredit the minority and those in the group.
3.1 New speakers as an active minority
The emergence of an active minority of new speakers of Galician can be set within
Galicia’s broader socio-political context. This in turn must be set against the ideological basis on which thirty years of language policies in Galicia has been framed.
Language policy in Galicia can be described as largely non-interventionist and
cautionary (Lorenzo 2005), reflecting the lukewarm levels of support for the promotion of the language through the predominant conservative and centralist
policies of Galician branches of Spain’s centre-right Popular Party. Their handling
of the language question reflects an ideological position, which sought to maintain the linguistic (and consequently social) “status quo” in Galicia. In doing so it
aimed to reassure the dominant (albeit numerically smaller) Spanish-speaking
sectors of the population that their existing positions of power would remain unchanged. This approach, which was a consequence of neo-liberal principles, promoted (although implicitly) the idea of “harmonious” bilingualism, and more
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Neofalantesas an active minority recently “friendly” (cordial) bilingualism, that is the non-conflictive co-existence
of Castilian and Galician within the community (see Regueiro Tenreiro [1999] for
a fuller discussion of the concept). Their approach to the language question contrasts with that proposed by the Galician Nationalist Party (Bloque Nationalista
Galego) which views the language contact situation between Galician and Spanish as conflictive and as one in which Galician speakers still remain in a dominated socio-economic position. There has been a simultaneous undermining of
each others’ linguistic ideologies by both sides with the link between speaking
Galician and the more radical elements of nationalism emerging as one of the
outcomes of this political confrontation, thus replacing former social stigmas associated with the language – such as rurality and poverty – with newer ones such
as the link with nationalism (Bouzada- Fernández 2003; Recalde Fernández
2000; Santamarina 2000). The promotion of “harmonious” bilingualism by previous Galician Administrations and their criticism of the “language conflict” paradigm have, it could be argued, made the majority of Galicians less consciously
defensive about language issues in Galicia and subsequently more accepting of
Spanish as the seemingly value-neutral language (O’Rourke 2011). At the same
time, we suggest that such policies have unsettled the mood of an active minority
and as such contributed to the process of majority language displacement
amongst new speakers of Galician (O’Rourke 2014). Since the 1980s, other types
of active minorities have also come into existence, partly as a reaction to proGalician groups such as neofalantes. These anti-Galician groups strongly oppose
the process of Galician language revitalization (see Regueira 2009), constructing
a discourse around the imposition of Galician and the subsequent injustices they
perceive to endure as Spanish speakers.
Here we argue that looking at the new speaker phenomenon from the perspective of an active minority can in some way contribute to our understanding of
the motivations behind changes in the linguistic behaviour of neofalantes and in
particular, of their decisions to displace a more socially and economically powerful first language with one which offers less in terms of social mobility and prestige. Becoming a new speaker thus requires innovative action through an appropriation of a new linguistic space as well as a commitment to the transformation
of society from below. In doing so, there could be said to be a rejection of the existing status quo, through a shift away from the majority language.
4 Methodology
To begin to explore the behavioural styles and practices of neofalantes as an
active minority, we analysed the discourses which emerged from discussion
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154 groups involving twelve new speakers of Galician about their sociolinguistic
practices. Through this technique we sought to re-create a context of informal
interaction which could be seen to replicate real situations where ideas and
points of view were negotiated (Edley and Litosseliti 2010), thus giving some
sense of the salient social representations of new speakers as a collective. The
group discussion therefore provided us with a useful technique to tap into the
discursive production of new speakers’ perceptions of themselves as a social and
linguistic group. The respondents chosen for the study ranged in age between 18
and 25 years and consisted of university students and graduates. Spanish was the
language in which they were brought up speaking in the home and which they
reported using with family and friends for at least the first fifteen years of their
lives. More than half of the respondents included in the two focus groups reported
passive exposure to Galician in the home and community and came from homes
in which parents or grandparents spoke Galician but used Spanish when addressing their children. In our analysis of the data we explored ways in which
new speakers manifest behavioural styles and characteristics of active minorities
and how they position themselves as such. In the following sections we discuss
excerpts4 from the data which illustrate these styles and positions.
5 Motivations for change, perceptions from the
majority and behavioural styles
In the discussion groups, new speakers presented the reasons behind changes in
their sociolinguistic behaviour and their motivations for adopting what in most
cases were predominantly Galician-language practices. The majority of respondents in the two groups seemed to be driven by an awareness of Galicia’s sociolinguistic reality. They showed a strong sense of responsibility towards ensuring the
future survival of the language, as well as a clear commitment to what they perceived as a situation of social and political injustice. This discourse is in many
ways reminiscent of other active minorities such as environmentalists and feminist movements. As we see in Extract 1, Alberto (A) in fact refers explicitly to neofalantismo, constructing the idea of a “newspeakerist” type movement which he
4 The excerpts represented here constitute a literal transcription of the discussion groups and
no attempt was made to alter the linguistic quality of individual interventions. In the case of
some of the excerpts, the Galician used illustrates interference with Spanish. In places where this
occurs, the words appear in roman.
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Neofalantesas an active minority sees as the only way of increasing the number of Galician speakers in a contemporary Galician context:
Extract 1
A: … home eu penso que si, porque é
unha forma de gañar falantes que
doutro xeito non habería … pois non
atopo outra forma de que incorpore
xente galegos … ou xente da sociedade galega ao emprego da lingua
galega se non e así, polo neofalantismo.
‘… well I think so, because it is one
way of getting more speakers as
otherwise there wouldn’t be any …
well I can’t think of any other way of
incorporating Galicians … or people
in Galician society to use the Galician language other than through
neofalantismo.’
In Extract 2, Susana (S) talked about the sense of responsibility and even guilt
that prompts neofalantes to initiate a change in their sociolinguistic behaviour:
Extract 2
S: Creo que tamén é importante ese sentimento de responsabilidade o de culpabilidade que senten muitos neofalantes. É dicir, chega un momento que
ti ves que tes unha responsabilidade
con respecto a túa lingua, que vives
nun país que ten, que está vivindo
nunhas circunstancias específicas,
non, e que ti es responsable diso,
entón tamén decides dar o paso, pois
creo que é importante motivo …
‘I also think that the feeling of responsibility or guilt that many neofalantes feel is important. That is to
say, you reach a point where you see
that you have a responsibility to your
language, that you are living in a
country which has, that is going
through certain conditions, and that
you are responsible for that so you
also decide to take that step forward,
well I think it is an important reason
…’
Similarly, in Extract 3, María (M) talked about a heightened sense of awareness of
the sociolinguistic context in Galicia. This sense of awareness was also accompanied by feelings of shame on her part. She felt ashamed that she wasn’t using the
language, even though it was a language she knew deep-down that she was able
speak. This realisation caused María certain unease and frustration as she struggled to deal with the belief that she should speak Galician and was in fact using
Spanish. It is thus this unresolved tension that leads to a state of dissonance (see
Festinger [1957] for a discussion of his theory on cognitive dissonance) and the
discomfort attributed to such a state which caused her to take action and, as she
put it herself, prompted her to “go ahead” (adiante) and to speak Galician:
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156 Extract 3
M: … Pois de que fastidiábame moitísimo
falar castelán podendo falar galego,
dábame vergonza algunhas veces, e
decidín que por que vou ter … porque
non podo. Teño veinticuatro, bueno
empecei con vintetrés así a tomar un
pouco de conciencia e dixen bueno
pois adiante.
‘… Well what annoyed me very much
was that I was speaking Castilian
when I knew I was able to speak Galician, I was ashamed at times, and I
decided because I was going to be …
why couldn’t I. I am twenty-four now,
well I started to be more aware when
I was twenty-three and I said to
myself, well go ahead.’
States of dissonance caused by inconsistencies between the speaker’s ideological
commitment to Galician and his or her behavioural practices were reported on
frequently as a stimulus and motivation for adopting Galician language practices.
Marcos (Ma), for example, saw the need to bring his linguistic behaviour in line
with an emerging political ideology of support for Galician nationalism. In late
adolescence he became a “patriotic nationalist”, as he put it himself, a real abertzale (a Basque word meaning ‘patriot’ and generally used to mean Basque nationalist). He built a discourse around the juxtaposition of language and national
identity. His use of Spanish thus became inconsistent with such ideologies,
prompting him to adopt Galician-language practices. He told of inconsistencies in
his friends’ behaviour who, on the one hand supported the idea of political independence for Galicia, but on the other, continued to speak Spanish. In comparison, he saw the need to resolve these tensions in his own linguistic behaviour by
switching to Galician and studying Galician Philology at University, fulfilling the
key ingredients required to fit the often stereotypical image of the Galician neofalante. María (M) added a similar comment, linking it more concretely to cultural
ties with the language and inconsistencies she perceived between playing the
bagpipes (something which has come to constitute a key ethnocultural symbol of
Galicianness) but at the same time continuing to speak Spanish:
Extract 4
M: O meu foi decisión
política. (Risas).
puramente
‘Mine was a purely political decision’ (laughs)
Ma: Eu aos dezaoito era un abertzale do
copón e era totalmente incoherente
que falara castelá. Eu tiña muitos
amigos, que si o independentismo,
non sei que, eran …, todos falaban
castelán, a min pareciame incohe-
‘At eighteen I was a real abertzale
and it was totally contradictory that I
should be speaking Castilian. I have
a lot of friends who say they are
pro-independence, or whatever,
they were …, they all used to speak
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Neofalantesas an active minority rente del todo, por eso tamén escollín
filoloxía galega, pa estudiar, e foi totalmente político. Compromiso cultural o como queiras, pero realmente
foi por política, o sea porque era incoherente con mi ideario político …
Castilian, it seemed completely incoherent to me, this is also why I chose
to study Galician Philology and it
was totally political. A cultural commitment or whatever you’d like to
call it, but really it was politically
motivated, I mean because it was inconsistent with my political ideals
…’
M: Si, si de compromiso cultural
‘Yes, yes a cultural commitment’
Ma: Si
‘Yes’
M: A mi dábame vergonza tocar a gaita
e falar castelán (risas). Queda moi
mal.
‘I was embarrassed that I was playing the bagpipes and at the same
time speaking Castilian. (laughs). It
looks bad.’
Interestingly, and despite the widely-held stereotypical image of the new speaker
as a supporter of Galician nationalism (Iglesias and Ramallo 2003; González
González 2003; O’Rourke 2011), Marcos (Ma) was the only person who matched
this profile. However, even Marcos (perhaps in line with a general disapproval for
these political ideologies amongst others in the group), was careful to separate
out his use of Galician from nationalist ideologies. Sandra (Sa) for example vehemently rejected the patriotic nationalism which seemed to have influenced
Marcos’ linguistic transformation and instead moved beyond regional or national
politics, positioning her reasons for change within a discourse of linguistic
human rights:
Extract 5
Sa: Xa, ¡joder! Pero non política abertzale, independentismo galego, senón
política, é dicir, política no sentido de
¡joder!, unha lingua forma parte das
persoas e se defendes as persoas hai
que defender tamén as linguas. Non
sei, máis política non tan galega,
senón política en xeral co mundo, non
sei.
[…]
‘Right, but damn it! I’m not talking
about the politics of Basque nationalism, Galician separatism, but
rather of politics, I mean, politics in
the sense of damn it!, a language
forms part of a people and if you
defend people you have also to
defend languages. I don’t know, not
so much Galician politics, but politics of the world in general, I don’t
know.’
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158 New speakers frequently talked about a perceived downgrading and censuring of
their linguistic practices where their use of Galician was seen to be interpreted as
deviant and out of place. There thus seemed to be a process of psychologization
on the part of the majority, taken at least from the way new speakers reported the
arguments used to discredit them. Their behaviour was classified as obsessive
and dogmatic and was often disqualified through their stereotyping as nationalist
and by default as radical and unwilling to compromise:
Extract 65
Ma: i e un problema para a propia lingua
ademais. Digo que (risas) falar galego
ou ser neofalante teña sempre ou casi
sempre connotacións … . Eu das primeiras veces que saíndo por aí falei
galego, que fumos de camping, nos
dixeron: “ah sois de Cangas o del
Bloque5?”
‘and it is a problem for the language
also. I would say that (laughs) speaking Galician or being a new speaker
always has connotations … . When I
first started speaking Galician, we
went camping, they said to us “ah
are you from Cangas or the Bloque?” ’
M: (risas)
(laughs)
Mo: ¡Claro!, pero esa é unha percepción
social que está en todas partes …
[…]
‘Sure! But this social perception is
everywhere …’
M: Sobre todo nas ciudades é iso identifican falar galego con afiliación
política que moitas veces non é así.
Teño unha amiga miña é neofalante y
me di ela ahora, pois ten certa afiliación, e me di, eu primeiro falei galego
y despois o outro impuxéronme.
(risas).
‘Especially in the cities and that’s
what they identify with speaking
Galician with a particular political
affiliation which on a lot of occasions it is not that at all. I have a
friend who is a new speaker and she
now says, well she is affiliated [politically] in some way, and she says, I
spoke Galician first and the other
was pushed on me (laughs).’
As well as having to counteract a stereotypical image of new speakers as supporters of Galician nationalism, new speakers highlighted a variety of other situations in which their sociolinguistic behaviour was marked, sometimes deviant
5 Cangas is a small costal-town close to the city of Vigo with a more strongly supportive
pro-independence population. The Bloque refers here to the Bloque Nacionalista Galego, one of
Galicia’s nationalist parties.
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159
Neofalantesas an active minority or simply out of place. Monica (Mo) talked about the hostile and even “vicious”
(virulenta) reaction from certain people when she changed her sociolinguistic
behaviour to Galician, coupled with accusations of showing off and trying to be
different:
Extract 7
Mo: … unha reacción absolutamente virulenta nese sentido, mui virulenta.
“Dime, ti por que falas?, y ¿ahora de
que vas?, y te haces la interesante” y
…, y era …, era complicado.
‘… a vicious reaction, very vicious.
“Tell me, why are you speaking Galician? And what the hell are you
doing? And you are showing off …”,
and it was …, very complicated.’
In turn, María (M) complained that her decision to become a Galician speaker was
something which she constantly needed to justify, something which often led to
unpleasant situations:
Extract 8
M: … xente que non vía facía moito tempo
era como constantemente terte que
justificar, non, e entón atoparme situacións bastante desagradables non,
tanto de xente … de xente da miña
idade como de xente maior …
[…]
‘… people who I hadn’t seen in a
while it was like you constantly had
to justify yourself to them, and so I
used to find myself in fairly unpleasant situations, both with people …
people of my own age and older
people …’
According to Marcial (Mc), his decision to use Galician to write his school examinations was seen as deviant. He claimed that because of his insistent use of Galician for this purpose, he was given lower grades in his exams. In theory, and in
line with policy changes since the 1980s, Galician speakers have the legal right to
use the language in institutional contexts such as the educational context referred to here. However, in practice this is not always possible. While the link
between Marcial’s lower grade in his exam and the fact that he used Galician may
be an exaggerated claim, it nonetheless highlighted new speakers’ negative perceptions about other people’s reactions to the use of Galician:
Extract 9
Mc: Home eu … tiven unha experiencia
con unha profesora que considero …
non? que prexudicou nas calificacións
da … da instituto por facer os exames
‘Well I … I had an experience with a
teacher who I consider … right? who
had a prejudice when it came to
giving grades … in secondary school
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160 en galego, por falarlle en galego, é
dicir non o podo demostrar hoxe en
día, non, vale a profesora non era
galega porque era de Zamora ou por
aí, y é dicir, e xente coas mismas
calificacións que a min púsolle unha
nota, xente con …, e a min pois
púxome outra entonces considero
que puido ser por iso.
for doing exams in Galician, for
speaking in Galician, I mean I can’t
prove it now, right? Ok the teacher
was not Galician because she was
from Zamora or around there, and I
mean, they had the same grades as
me and she gave them one grade
people with …, and she gave me another so I think it could be because
of that.
Despite these situations, new speakers continued to be committed to using Galician and invested time and energy in the process. As Alberto (A) pointed out,
ideological commitment such as that described by these new speakers explains
why someone would decide and commit to becoming a Galician speaker, given
the difficulties that he and others in the group said this involved. Rather than
opening doors, he described speaking Galician as creating insurmountable barriers. In practical terms, life was thus seen to be inherently easier in Spanish, with
less conflict and less friction:
Extract 10
A: De todos modos penso que si que ten
un grado de conciencia, igual non
político pero si un pouco ideolóxico
porque por pragmatismo non che leva
a falar galego, é dicir, o único, dende
un punto de vista meramente pragmático o galego o que che levanta é
barreiras, é dicir unha persoa que non
teña ningún tipo de conciencia di
“mellor cantas menos linguas mellor,
temos menos que aprender, menos
polo que cuidarme, menos polo que
atoparme xente con a que igual teño
roces” Estupendo! eu por falar, por
falar castelán ninguén …, bueno igual
si, pero moita menos xente vaime
criticar, pero por falar galego hai
xente que vaime dicir: “¡ay yo no te
‘At any rate I think that if someone
has a degree of awareness, not necessarily political but sort of ideological because for pragmatic reasons
you are not going to speak Galician,
what I mean is that, the only thing,
from a merely pragmatic point of
view all Galician does is create barriers what I mean is that a person
who is not [linguistically] aware will
say “perhaps the less languages the
better, we have less to learn, less to
look out for, less chance of running
into people with whom I may have a
run in”. Great! I am going to speak,
speaking Castilian nobody …, well
perhaps yes, fewer people are going
to criticize me, but if I speak Galician
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161
Neofalantesas an active minority entiendo, háblame castellano!”, non
sei que …
there are people who will say to me
– “Ah, I don’t understand, speak to
me in Castilian!”, or I don’t know
what …’
The behavioural styles of investment and consistency identified in Moscovici’s
classification of active minorities frequently emerged in discussions with neofalantes. Investment, for example, can be seen very clearly in the way new speakers
talked about their new linguistic practices and the effort they claimed to have
made in order to change their linguistic behaviour. This involved a process of
conscious decision-making and constant sacrifice which was required to endure
what they perceived as a stigmatization of their linguistic behaviour. Despite this
stigmatization, they nonetheless reported consistency in their linguistic behaviour, refusing to fold to perceived pressures from the majority and therefore
prompting them to continue to use Galician despite the odds.
In Extract 11, Marcial, for example pointed to the difficulties involved in becoming a Galician speaker, emphasising the investment of time that was required
in mastering the language. He also talked about being made fun of for his more
hybridized way of speaking, where it was labelled as castrapo (literally the ‘rag
of Castilian’). Castrapo is a pejorative term used to describe both Galician and
Spanish speakers who try and are seen to fail to speak either language “correctly”.
Despite these difficulties, Marcial nonetheless reported consistency in his
behaviour and showed clear determination to continue speaking Galician. The
position of sacrifice was, as we see in Extract 8 above, reinforced in Marcial’s (Mc)
claim that he was discriminated against for taking his exams in Galician, something which in theory is permitted in line with Galicia’s bilingual policies but
which in practice can sometimes be seen as deviant behaviour. He insisted that
he had to endure being made fun of in class for using Galician. All of this made
the transition to becoming a Galician speaker “somewhat difficult” (algo duro).
Yet, despite these criticisms, there was consistency in his behaviour and he remained committed to using Galician:
Extract 11
Mc: A min personalmente cústome muito,
muita xente se riou de min nese momento, por falar galego e dicían … “ti
falas castrapo”, bueno pssss …, falo
castrapo e seguireino falando y son
neofalante hoxe en día polos motivos
que sexan, non?, xa sexan políticos de
‘For me it was very difficult, a lot of
people laughed at me for speaking
Galician and they would say … “you
are speaking castrapo”, well pahhh
…, I speak castrapo and I still speak
it and I am a new speaker today for
whatever reason, right? be they
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Bernadette O’Rourke and Fernando Ramallo
162 …, non sei o porque simplemente me
dá a gana … iso, aguantei moita burla
… a xente pois sorprendeuse un pouco
… y facían burla como dicindo falas
castrapo y … ti dis, bueno pero falarei
castrapo pero non sei, ti tampouco
falas ben castelán (risas) e non sei.
Foi algo duro ao principio.
linked to the politics of …, I don’t
know or simply because I feel like it
… I put up with mockery … people
surprised me a bit … and they made
fun of me as if to say you speak castrapo (laughs) and I don’t know. It
was difficult at the beginning.’
María (M) talked about the difficulties involved in making the transition from
being a Spanish to a Galician speaker but the sacrifice and investment in these
efforts were rewarded by her present state of satisfaction which she now claimed
to enjoy through her Galician-speaking practices. She said, “I have never felt
better” (Eu nunca me sentín mellor):
Extract 12
M: … Ao principio é duro porque algunhas veces si que cambiar de lingua
con xente coa que estás … que tes un
sentimento, quero dicir, un …, bueno
non me sale emmmm como un lazo
muy forte sentimental como pode ser
unha nai, por exemplo, é duro e algunhas veces pois pero … Pero tamén
máis duro é saber que podes pasar iso
nunhas semanas nun mes e … . Eu
nunca me sentín mellor, por exemplo.
‘… At the beginning it was difficult
because sometimes with those with
whom you have a close relationship,
I mean, a …, I don’t know like a
strong sentimental link that you
might have with a mother, for example, it is difficult and sometimes well
but … But what is more difficult is
knowing that you can get over that in
a few weeks in a month and … I never
felt better, for example.’
6 Concluding comments
The new speaker category is one which until recently has not been given any
great deal of attention in the Galician sociolinguistic literature. Analyses of the
Galician sociolinguistic context have instead tended to focus on models of intergenerational transmission basing the sometimes pessimistic predictions of linguistic vitality of the language on a decline in its intergenerational transmission
in the home and in the reproduction of Galician native speakers. This perspective
ignores the potential presented by new profiles of speakers, such as neofalantes
of Galician.
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163
Neofalantesas an active minority As a result of language policy changes in Galicia since the 1980s, the symbolic and economic value of Galician on the linguistic market was enhanced, although not significantly enough to change the rules of social mobility. Meanwhile, Spanish has continued to be the language of prestige. Despite this,
neofalantes opt for linguistic change and engage in the process of majority language displacement. Here we have argued that this displacement can at least in
part be explained by a shift in focus away from functionalist models of language
contact and shift and towards an understanding of these processes from a language conflict perspective, thus allowing us to explain the practices of neofalantes as not simply deviations from the sociolinguistic “status quo” but as reactions
to it and as proponents of social change.
Through their linguistic behaviour, we argue, neofalantes can be seen to contribute to the transformation of the existing sociolinguistic order. In doing so they
are challenging a socially structured and potentially structuring hierarchical
model in which Spanish continues to maintain, in Bourdieunian terms (1991), its
“legitimate” status and remains a key source of symbolic capital on the Galician
linguistic market. Neofalantes can, it could be argued, be seen to shed themselves
of their linguistic habitus (Bourdieu 1991), that is, the Spanish-speaking habits
which they learned through childhood and beyond and which conform to the
social norms of language use in the urban, middle-class contexts in which such
profiles of speakers tend to be found. In doing so they are breaking with structures which as part of their habitus are essentially inscribed in their bodies and
which up until a certain point in their lives had prompted the automatic use of
Spanish. It is this questioning of this automatism and the denaturalizing of their
existing linguistic practices which prompts them to adopt Galician-speaking
practices. This denaturalization and disembodiment of such practices unsettles
what is seen and accepted as most “natural” and “normal”. As we have shown in
our data, this makes the transition to becoming a neofalante more difficult.
However, we would contend that it is their behavioural styles and motivations for change as an active minority that prompts them to maintain their newly
adopted Galician language practices. They show both investment and consistency
in their behavioural styles, reflecting behavioural styles identified in Moscovici’s
classification of active minorities more generally. New speakers display investment in the way they talked about their new linguistic practices and the effort
they claimed to have made to bring about changes in their linguistic behaviour.
This in turn involved a certain degree of sacrifice to endure what they perceived
as a stigmatization of their new linguistic practices. Despite this stigmatization,
they nonetheless displayed consistency, refusing to give in to perceived pressure
from the majority. These new speakers seemed to be driven by an awareness of
Galicia’s sociolinguistic reality and showed a strong sense of responsibility in
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Bernadette O’Rourke and Fernando Ramallo
164 securing the future survival of the language, as well as a clear commitment to
what they see as a situation of social and political injustice. Their discourse is
thus in many ways reminiscent of other active minorities such as environmentalists and feminist movements in their construction of neofalantismo or a “newspeakerist” type movement of their own.
Acknowledgements: This article was written during Bernadette O’Rourke’s research leave as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) Fellowship
for the project “New Speakers of Minority Languages and their role in Linguistic
Revitalization” [Grant number AH/J00345X/1]. The article also benefitted from
feedback from members of the NEOPHON project (“Nuevos hablantes, nuevas
identidades”) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación within the
Plan Nacional de I+D+i 2008–2011 for the project Ref. FFI2011-24781 and participation in the EU COST Action IS1306 “New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe:
Opportunities and Challenges”. An earlier version of this paper was aired at the
First International Symposium on New Speakers of Minority Languages funded
by the Royal Society of Edinburgh Royal.
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